Vitality book grand final spot against NAVI

After a close first two maps, the Frenchmen ran away with the final map to knock Astralis out in front of the Danish crowd.

Vitality continued an excellent run at BLAST Premier Fall Final with a 2-1 series victory over Astralis, losing out on the Dane's pick of Nuke 16-12 before reverse sweeping with victories on Inferno, 16-11, and Mirage, 16-7.

It was a back and forth affair on the first two maps, with both teams having realistic chances to take either map, before the Danes simply ran out of steam on Mirage and Vitality converted the victory with aplomb. The win grants them a grand-final meeting later in the day with Natus Vincere.

When asked about his team's chances in the final, Richard "⁠shox⁠" Papillon was realistic: "I think we are really happy to have made it to the final, it is definitely a good result. Now I won't even talk about winning or losing; yesterday was definitely a really bad day for us, today seems a bit better, so hopefully we can at least fight and show some good Counter-Strike in front of everyone today."

First up was the Astralis pick of Nuke, a map which is solid for both teams. The Danes kicked off on the T side, and won the pistol and converted to take a 3-0 lead. Vitality immediately struck back and strung together five of their own, but the same old problems began to creep in for the Frenchmen, their very static defence getting picked apart by Astralis. This lead to an 8-7 half in favour of Dan "⁠apEX⁠" Madesclaire and co, but letting the Danes get 7 on the offense was probably too much.

Astralis proved that point as they moved onto the defensive side, the Frenchmen getting the pistol and three after that, but no more as the Astralis defence proved to be imperious, running the score all the way to 16-12. Across the whole game Vitality struggled to find first kills, losing to the Danes on this front 12:16, and this was a key difference maker.

Next up was Vitality's Inferno pick, and the Frenchmen proved why it was their chosen map. The started off on the T side, and after winning the pistol and converting, it actually began to look rough for Vitality. The Danes grew into the map, winning eight of the next 10 rounds to give themselves an 8-5 lead, but fortunately for Vitality they were able to find a couple more at the end of the half to move onto their offensive side merely 7-8 down.

The second half was a struggle for Astralis, only managing three rounds as a Mathieu "⁠ZywOo⁠" Herbaut powered Vitality romped to a fairly comfortably 16-11 victory. It was a reverse of the first map in the sense that this time, the French side found themselves on the right side of the first kills tally, winning it 16-11, and once again this stat proved to be a vital difference.

Mirage was the decider for this series, and it wasn't quite the grandstand finish many may have hoped for. Vitality started on the CT side and their combative approach to dealing with middle was difficult for Astralis to deal with; the 9-6 score at the half still flattered the Frenchmen slightly, who could attribute the lead to winning the pistol and converting.

Moving onto the offense and Vitality stepped their foot on the gas and did not look back, winning seven of the next eight rounds to romp to a 16-7 victory. Astralis simply couldn't hold a bombsite, even when they did manage to find opening kills, and thus their CT side unravelled quickly. ZywOo was, as per the usual, the highest rated player on the server, but Kévin "⁠misutaaa⁠" Rabier also deserves credit for a good showing.